Sorrow of Courage
by Julian Amsel
Summary: I wrote this when I was feeling morbid. Basicly, Tai makes a wrong desision and everybody dies. Note: Work in Progress!


Notes: This is a Work In Progress. It's the unfinished, unedited version. Basicly, the storyline is that the Digi-destined get attacked by an unknown digimon, and though they stay and fight, they have no way of winning. Tai gets knocked out about halfway through the fight, and when he comes to he finds that all (yes, all) his friends are dead. Me and my brother wrote this when we were in a really morbid mood, and I don't know if it'll ever be finished. Maybe I'll get the job done next time I'm feeling violent, but I can't know for sure. Anyway, on to the story. Oh yeah, and this one is from Tai's Point of View. Just so ya know.=) 

I opened my eyes slowly, pain surging through every inch of my body. Bewildered for a second, I glanced around me, trying to remember what had happened. The desert that we had been in before was completely changed, a mess of boulders and rubble towering above deep crevices where there had once been flat land. "What happened here?" I whispered to myself, reaching up to brush a strand of hair from my face. Something was wrong. My hair was sticky with drying blood, and everything just seemed.. different. I couldn't move my right hand. And my entire face was crusted with dark blood and sand.   
"Agumon?" I called out, hoping my friend was nearby. "Agumon, where are you?" Cringing with pain, I managed to stand, clutching at my side where crimson blood still flowed from an open wound. The place where I had lain was stained black, a permanent marking of my pain.   
Suddenly, I remembered what had happened. We had been attacked by a strange digimon. It had been huge, twice the size of a skyscraper. I recalled that it looked like some kind of pterodactyl.. but no flying animal could ever be that big. Whatever it was, it was trouble. I remembered asking Izzy what digimon it was... even his computer didn't know.   
But there was something more. What had I forgotten?   
  
The digimon had attacked without warning, showering us with fire and lightning. We had been attacked by something else earlier that day, and the digimon were too tired to even digivolve to their champion forms. They had tried to hold off the enemy, but it was futile. Finally, Agumon had managed to digivolve to Greymon, but.... 

Soon, it began to dawn on me. I could see the battle in my mind... Greymon trying to hold off the evil digimon, and everyone else was fleeing... I could hear my own voice, yelling "No! Stay and fight!". I could hear Izzy yelling back at me "No, Tai, don't be stupid! It's suicide! We can't fight it!"   
Reluctantly, everyone else obeyed my orders and stood their ground, though they knew it was looking death in the face. They had tried to get their digimon to digivolve... 

I walked past the rubble, calling for my friends. "Agumon? Joe? Matt? Sora? Anybody! Can you hear me?!" Swallowing hard, I recalled exactly how large and powerful that digimon had been. I just hoped they got away... 

I stopped walking, the hair on the back of my neck bristling with nervousness. Something wasn't right. It was too quiet. Even the wind wasn't blowing. I had kept my eyes to the ground, looking for tracks. Now I raised my head, slowly, and gasped with horror at the sight that was before me. 

My friends lay on the ground in pools of blood, their digimon alongside them. I limped over to each of them, calling out their names, hoping, praying that they were only unconscious.   
"Matt!" I called to the mangled figure of my nearest friend, rushing to his body. He lay in a heap, as if he had been thrown down like a rag doll. His hair and clothes were red with blood, and the life still flowed from a large wound in his chest.   
"Matt." I whispered, tears coming to my eyes as I remembered every time I had argued with him. "I didn't want it to end this way."   
My eyes strayed to a small blue ball of fluff which rested a few feet away from him. It took a few moments before I realized what it was.   
"Gabumon." I whispered, gathering the body in my arms and laying it next to Matt. The digimon looked like it had fought with all it had.. Of course he did, I thought. Gabumon would do anything for Matt. I let my eyes move to Matt's face. His eyes were closed, but not tight, and strangely, if he hadn't been soaked with blood, it would have looked like he was sleeping. He reminded me briefly of a child, dozing with a torn stuffed toy. But it pained my heart to know that he would never wake up.. 

Somehow, I forced myself to leave Matt. I considered leaving them, all of them, but.. I couldn't. Not yet. So I walked amongst the carnage, trying to find a definite body in the gore.   
Not far from Matt lay a small figure, seemingly slumped against a rock, as if resting. As I got closer, I recognized the digimon which lay alongside it. It was nearly burnt to a crisp, but it still held the form of a rather large insect.   
"But that must mean..." I whispered, running over to the bodies.   
I knelt before the kid and gently touched his chin, lifting his head slightly so I could see his face, so I would know if I was right.... his face had taken the least damage. I could still see that his hair was the same brown orange, and his face still held the intelligent expression that was all too common for him. And his ebony black eyes, only half-closed, still sparkled with light, though it was merely the glassy reflection of the sun on his eyes, not the spark of life that they had once had.   
"Izzy." I whispered, tears in my eyes. "Izzy... oh god, I should have listened to you. I should have listened to you.."   
I spotted his laptop laying nearby, surprisingly undamaged. He probably tried to use it again to find out what was attacking us, I thought. Good old persistent Izzy... Trembling, I placed it in his lap, whispering "You can't take it with you, but maybe.. maybe you'll have it in the afterlife." 

Heart sinking, I left him to look for the others. After some searching, I found them. But I truly wish I hadn't. 

  



End file.
